Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Cheap, plentiful Chinese -- Hoy's, Bensenville

I drive past Hoy's, 455 W Irving Park Rd, Bensenville daily. It's in a strip mall that's actually one of the bright spots of the Bensenville stretch of Irving Park, which has a lot of auto shops and empty spaces.

This cheery little strip mall contains a taqueria, a Jimmy John's, a Polish deli, a barber shop, a couple other small shops and Hoy's Chinese Restaurant.

So I drive past Hoy's regularly, but I hadn't indulged my Chinese take-out craving for quite awhile -- until the husband was away for the weekend and I wanted something fast and tasty.

The restaurant is not very big, but has a decent-size dining room for eating in. I perused the large menu briefly and selected a small wonton soup and Taiwan Style Rice Noodles, described as "Taiwan style thin rice noodles mixed with shredded pork, pea pods, peppers, carrots, bean sprouts and onions."

About 10 minutes later, I had my piping hot bag in hand and was out the door.

Even though it seemed a touch overpackaged, I appreciated that the soup was in its own small plastic bag and then a bigger paper bag inside the largest plastic bag, so there was no chance of leakage.

The soup was packed with veggies -- unusual for wonton soup -- and instead of one or two big wontons, it contained maybe six or seven small meatball-sized wontons. The broth wasn't quite as flavorful as I'm used to, but I appreciated the tons of cabbage and sprouts.

The noodles were a HUGE portion -- easily enough for two. It was flavorful, with fresh, plentiful veggies. There was also plenty of pork, although it wasn't really shredded. Instead it was big slices and strips, and some of it was a bit on the chewy side. Oh, and it also contained egg, which is not mentioned in the description. That said, it was fresh-tasting and very good, both for dinner and the next morning when I polished off the rest of it.

Given the prompt service, tasty food and very reasonable prices, I am looking forward to trying more of Hoy's huge menu.

No comments: